I spent the day trying to clean out the crap in my garage in preparation for moving. We have a major buttload of stuff to get rid of, and are planning a moving sale for next weekend, with the Salvation Army or DAV to get the leftovers.
What is getting me down is the fact that I spent $250 for a 10 yard dumpster to sit in my driveway so I can throw out the crap, it’s now just shy of half full after 1 day, and my garage doesn’t look any cleaner.
You are a pack rat. Admit it. Have someone else come over and ask you if you have used this item in five years. If not, then toss it. My Mother had 11 steam irons and twelve balls of rubber bands, the size of tennis balls. I filled two dumpsters with Family Circle Magazines…
No, VunderWife is the packrat…
There, there, vunderbob. I can empathize. My basement is full of crap too, and I don’t even want to consider how much more crap there is in the upstairs.
I’m trying to take it slowly, as we plan to move by August or so. Right now my son and I are doing a clean sweep-type thing on each room. The goal is to get rid of at least 70% of all the stuff upsttairs, and basically ALL of the basement stuff.
My advice is: Get rid of absolutely everything you can, unless you need it to sit on, sleep on, or eat from. Don’t feel guilty about throwing anything away; this is a one-time thing, and you can be more environmentally aware later.
Of course, the above advice is easy for me to hand out, because we have mostly yardsale junk that I can replace for next to nothing. If you have good stuff, you’ll want to keep it, naturally. I just really like the idea of moving into an EMPTY (or nearly so) home.
Good luck, friend. I’ll be thinking of you, and holler if you need a hand.
Best,
karol
I’m going thru a similar thing, but with a longer timeline. We gave a bunch of stuff to the school for a fundraiser. We took a bunch to Goodwill and left out 4 bags for Vietnam Veterans. I had a yard sale yesterday, and the leftovers are going to a local women’s shelter. The kid has been boxing up her stuff for a few weeks.
And I’m hard-pressed to see a difference. Where does all this crap come from?? I think crap fairies sneak in to the house at night and leave more crap. And, of course, crap expands to fill all available space, so the bigger the house, the more crap.
I think I’m going to live in my van - not much crap room in there.
<sigh>
Next month, I’m taking a trailer load and a van load to my mother’s house to store till we build our next place.